In a renewed effort to add capacity ahead of the curve and return to historical capital spending patterns, TSMC has held a groundbreaking ceremony in Taichung’s Central Taiwan Science Park for its latest 300mm facility, Fab 15. The fab will be comprised of two manufacturing cleanrooms and an office building having a capacity of over 100,000wspm when fully ramped. Construction is expected to take approximately 10 months. TSMC said it expected to begin equipment move in for Phase 1 in June 2011, with volume production of 40nm and 28nm technology products for customers in the first quarter of 2012. The fully ramped cost of the facility was said to be US$9.34 billion.

Fab 15 follows in the design of Fab 14, its other ‘Giga Fab’ sized facility which will have 104,000 square meters (approximately 14 soccer fields) of cleanroom space. A process water conservation rate of 85% is being designed into the facility, which will also include reclamation of rainwater, recirculation and reuse of general exhaust heat, and development of solar power generation and LED lighting applications. TSMC said its goal is to reach zero emissions of greenhouse gases for the facility.

“TSMC has worked unceasingly to improve its technology leadership, manufacturing excellence, and customer partnership to join together with our fabless and IDM customers to forge a powerful competitive force in the semiconductor industry. This groundbreaking for Fab 15 in the central Taiwan science park shows our commitment to providing our customers with advanced technology and satisfying their capacity needs. And as capacity in Fab 15 grows, it will create 8,000 high quality job opportunities, demonstrating TSMC’s dedication to corporate social responsibility.”

TSMC also reiterated that it would be continuing its capacity expansions at Fab 12 in Hsinchu and Fab 14 in Tainan, which will see 300mm capacity, exceed 240,000wspm by the end of this year. Current capacity at these fabs was said to be over 200,000wspm.